Frontier Claims Conn. Municipal Gain Statute Might Limit Muni Fiber
Connecticut law might preclude the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority from developing rules enabling cities and towns to use utility poles for fiber networks, a Frontier Communications attorney told PURA Thursday in oral argument. Connecticut has a “municipal gain” statute by…
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which it reserves a space on each pole for municipal use for any purpose. This summer, the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel petitioned the regulator to clarify rules on pole access, attachments, maintenance and make-ready costs so localities can use the municipal gain space for fiber (see 1608030013). At oral argument, Frontier counsel Daniel Venora said the OCC request is premature and PURA must first decide whether the municipal gain statute even gives municipalities the right to build competitive telecom networks. One commissioner asked whether the term “municipal gain” implied municipalities may use the space; Venora said no. The statute “doesn’t grant municipal powers,” the Frontier attorney said. Consumer Counsel Elin Katz responded that the statute allows a municipality to use the space “for any purpose.” While 20 states have laws specifically prohibiting municipal fiber, Connecticut doesn't, Katz emailed afterward. “Our petition is about how municipalities can access the gain, not a referendum on municipal networks, which is what the opponents seems to want it to be about. The questions that need to be resolved … are what is the proper process for munis to access the gain, how is the gain supposed to be delineated or reserved for their use, and how should efforts by certain pole owners to impede use of the gain for municipal networks be resolved.”